Thurman, 28, of Melrose Park was charged after an investigation into allegations that Thurman was seeking to have the victim and her family in his pending predatory criminal sexual assault charges killed. (Credit: Cook County Sheriff’s Office)
Reporting Bob Roberts
CHICAGO (CBS) — A Melrose Park man being held at the Cook County Jail on charges that he raped an 11-year-old girl is now charged with seeking to hire a hit man to kill the girl, her sister and her mother.
Brian Thurman has been jailed since Jan. 13, unable to make the $480,000 bond in the original case. Sheriff’s Police said, in a statement, that the 28-year-old Thurman approached another inmate, known to be a gang member, on Jan. 29 seeking to find a hitman. The next day he was provided the phone number of someone he believed to be a hit man. Sheriff’s Police spokesman Frank Bilecki said two then spoke by phone and in person at the jail.
Bilecki said that during the jail visitation, the “hitman,” who was actually an undercover sheriff’s investigator, secretly recorded Thurman as he detailed what he wanted done to the girl, her 16-year-old sister and the girls’ mother.
Thurman allegedly offered the “hitman” $8,000 and his Mercury Mountaineer as payment.
Bilecki said Thurman has been known to associate with other young girls, and Shjeriff’s investigators have been attempting to determine if he molested anyone else. To date, Bilecki said, no one has come forward.
THurman was denied bond.
